Airlines face heavy fines if passengers left on tarmac more than three hours

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An unidentified new immigrant waves from inside a special El Al flight after landing at Israel's Ben Gurion Airport July 9, 2003 in Tel Aviv, Israel. Approximately 330 North American Jews moved to Israel on the first of two flights out of New York that is to bring to Israel a total of about 700 new immigrants within the course of this month. (Photo by David Silverman/Getty Images)

Updated at 10:55 PM CDT on Monday, Dec 21, 2009

Stinky toilets, crying babies, airless cabins -- the Obama administration said Monday passengers don't have to take it any more. It ordered airlines to let people get off planes delayed on the ground after three hours.

This is undoubtedly welcome news to passengers like Keith Hicks. Hicks was headed home to Dallas out of New York when he was stuck on an American Airlines plane, on the ground, for seven hours in September. Hicks and the other passengers were told if they got off the plane to get food or stretch their legs that they would not be allowed back on -- and they could have been stuck in New York for several days.

Government Imposes 3-Hour Limit on Tarmac Strandings

The Obama administration says airline passengers don't have to take being stranded any more and ordered airlines to let people get off planes delayed on the ground after three hours. (Published Monday, Dec. 21, 2009)

Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said the three-hour limit and other new regulations are meant to send an unequivocal message to airlines not to hold passengers hostage on stuck planes. Coming on the eve of the busy holiday travel season, the announcement was hailed by consumer advocates as "a Christmas miracle."

The airline industry said it will comply with the regulations -- which go into effect in 120 days -- but predicted the result will be more canceled flights, more inconvenience for passengers.

"Obviously we will abide by it," said Tim Smith, with Fort Worth-based American Airlines. "The unintended consequence here is that there will probably be more cancellations than we had under our current system."

Air Transport Association President and CEO James May nearly mimicked Smith's assertion.

"The requirement of having planes return to the gates within a three-hour window or face significant fines is inconsistent with our goal of completing as many flights as possible," said May. "Lengthy tarmac delays benefit no one."

LaHood, however, dismissed that concern.

"I don't know what can be more disruptive to people than to be stuck sitting on a plane five, six, seven hours with no explanation," LaHood said at a briefing.

This year through Oct. 31, there were 864 flights with taxi out times of three hours or more, according to the Bureau of Transportation Statistics. Transportation officials, using 2007 and 2008 data, said there are an average of 1,500 domestic flights a year carrying about 114,000 passengers that are delayed more than three hours.

It was the first time the department had fined an airline for actions involving a ground delay. Transportation officials made clear the case was a warning to the industry.

Under the new regulations, the only exceptions to the requirement that planes must return to the gate after three hours are for safety or security or if air traffic control advises the pilot in command that returning to the terminal would disrupt airport operations.

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said she thought the 3-hour rule would not cause any problems for security: "I can't imagine it would. I call it the rule of common sense," Napolitano said.

Airlines could be fined $27,500 per passenger for each violation of the three-hour limit.

The regulations apply to domestic flights. U.S. carriers operating international flights departing from or arriving in the United States must specify, in advance, their own time limits for deplaning passengers. Foreign carriers do not fly between two U.S. cities and are not covered by the rules.

Tarmac strandings have mostly involved domestic flights, but the department is studying extending the three-hour limit to international flights, LaHood said.

"This is the beginning," LaHood said. "We think we owe it to passengers to really look out for them."

"Definitely a step in the right direction. Sitting on those planes is not a humane thing to do," said Greg Jones, of Allen.

Airlines will be required to provide food and water for passengers within two hours of a plane being delayed on a tarmac, and to maintain operable lavatories. They must also provide passengers with medical attention when necessary.

Airlines will also be prohibited from scheduling chronically delayed flights. Carriers who fail to comply could face government enforcement action for using unfair or deceptive trade practices.

Pending legislation sponsored Sens. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., and Olympia Snowe, R-Maine, would also impose a three-hour limit, but the new regulations go even farther, giving passenger rights advocates many of the reforms they've sought for years.

"No more will they be able to strand passengers for over three hours in hot, sweaty, metal tubes," said Kate Hanni, founder of Flyersrights.org. Hanni, who called the rules a Christmas miracle, was stuck on an American Airlines jet in Austin, Texas, for over nine hours in December 2006 when storms forced the closure of Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport, stranding more than 100 planes.

Past efforts to address the problem have fizzled in the face of industry opposition and promises to reform.

Congress and the Clinton administration tried to act after a January 1999 blizzard kept Northwest Airlines planes on the ground in Detroit, trapping passengers for seven hours. Some new regulations were put in place but most proposals died, including one that airlines pay passengers who are kept waiting on a runway for more than two hours.

The Bush administration and Congress returned to the issue three years ago after several high-profile strandings, including a snow and ice storm that led JetBlue Airways to leave planes full of passengers sitting on the tarmac at New York's Kennedy International Airport for nearly 11 hours.

After those incidents, DOT Inspector General Calvin Scovel recommended that airlines be required to set a limit on the time passengers have to wait out travel delays grounded inside an airplane.

A year ago, the Bush administration proposed airlines be required to have contingency plans for stranded passengers, but the proposal didn't include a specific time limit on how long passengers can be kept waiting. It was denounced as toothless by consumer advocates.